Join Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester, for “Understanding Forest Management,” a walk of an active forest management project at the Hinesburg Town Forest (HTF).

Done well, modern forest management can be restorative and regenerative, helping create more diverse, vibrant, resilient forests with great wildlife habitat, helping forests recover from the effects of human land use and creating old forest attributes sooner than they would naturally occur. At the same time, forest management generates local, renewable resources which get turned into building materials, paper, power and more. Like local food, local wood supports our working landscape and our rural communities and mitigates the use of resources produced under more adverse ecological and social conditions elsewhere in the country or the world. We will walk the management area and talk about forests, forest management, and forest ecology. Please bring an open mind and all those questions you’ve never had a chance to ask about forest management.

This walk will happen “rain (snow, mud) or shine.” Participants should be ready to spend a couple hours outdoors walking over uneven and potentially slippery surfaces in whatever weather we find ourselves in, and also to spend extended periods of time standing and talking. Directions on where to meet will be sent to participants in advance.